ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Guyer and Kevin Kiermaier homered, and the Tampa Bay bullpen held the Kansas City Royals to one hit over five innings Sunday in the Rays’ 3-2 win.
Kiermaier’s sixth-inning homer off Luke Hochevar (1-1) broke a 2-2 tie. It was Kiermaier’s second homer in two games and sixth of the season.
Xavier Cedeno (3-1) got the win in relief while Brad Boxberger pitched the ninth for his 32nd save.
Four of Kansas City’s seven hits came during a two-run third that included RBIs by Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain.
The AL Central-leading Royals, who lost for only the sixth time in 23 games, had a chance to tie it in the eighth when Rays first baseman James Loney completed a double play by throwing Zobrist out at the plate.
Rays starter Nathan Karns gave up two runs on six hits while striking out five.
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A $1.2 million federal project to upgrade a concrete installation in the Smoky Hill River will help ensure that a section of the river will flow into Salina’s water supply.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project is paid by federal tax dollars. The Salina Journal reports the installation is essentially a concrete wall in the river that facilitates diverting water from the channel and takes it to the water treatment plant.
About half Salina’s water is supplied by the river. The remainder comes from wells.
High water in the Smoky Hill River in 2013 caused a portion of the project structure to break away, reducing the amount of water diverted to the city.
Officials say the new structure will have a 50-year design life.
HAYS – A Rooks County man was injured in an accident just before 8 a.m. on Sunday in Ellis County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Pontiac passenger vehicle driven by Marc Ethan Kosjer, 25, Palco, was northbound in the Sunday morning fog on U.S. 183 fourteen miles north of Hays.
The vehicle collided with the trailer of a 2007 Kenworth semi driven by Rocky Lynn Hamblet, 59, Plainville, that was eastbound on Saline River Road.
Kosjer was transported to Hays Medical Center. Hamblet was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA–Kansas has received a State Trade and Export Promotion (STEP) Grant of $296,533 from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The Kansas Departments of Agriculture and Commerce will partner to leverage the grant funding to promote exports.
“Kansas has a proud and rich tradition in agriculture and understands that the international market is the key to growth of the industry. This grant will allow us to explore emerging markets for Kansas agricultural products,” stated Kansas Department of Agriculture Secretary Jackie McClaskey. “Kansas had more than $4.9 billion in agriculture exports in 2014.”
“Trade is critical to the health of the Kansas economy,” Kansas Commerce Interim Secretary Michael Copeland said. “The STEP Grant will allow us to continue to support the efforts of the great businesses in our state to grow and expand in markets across the world.”
The STEP Grant will be used to help businesses begin exporting for the first time or to grow their existing exports. The Kansas STEP team will focus on several areas to accomplish this goal. It will facilitate export training for small and medium-sized enterprises through seminars and courses. The team will also provide exhibition opportunities at international trade shows and support for participation in international trade missions. In addition, the grant will provide market entry support through the U.S. Commercial Service’s expertise and programs.
The STEP program is a pilot export initiative to make matching-fund awards to states to assist small businesses in entering and succeeding in the international marketplace. The program’s objectives are to increase the number of U.S. small businesses that export and to increase the value of exports by small businesses. STEP activities are managed and provided at the local level by state government organizations. The program is managed at the national level by the SBA’s Office of International Trade.
Detailed information about how Kansas businesses may apply for funding through the STEP grant will be available soon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Plummeting stock prices have taken a toll on U.S. consumer confidence, though there are signs the setback may be temporary.
The University of Michigan says its consumer sentiment index fell to 91.9 this month from 93.1 in July. The index is still up 11.4 percent from a year ago.
The figures provide an early read of the impact on consumers from the 1,900 point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average over six days through Tuesday. Stock prices have since recovered some of those losses.
The University of Michigan surveys consumers throughout the month and so some of the responses were tallied as the stock market plunged.
Even so, the survey also found that Americans remain confident about the U.S. economy and their personal finances.
David Sanford, CEO of Wichita-based GraceMed, says health centers that serve Kansans who lack insurance or have trouble paying for health care are seeing growing demand for their services. CREDIT BRYAN THOMPSON / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Health centers that serve Kansans who lack insurance or struggle to pay for primary health care are seeing no lack of demand for their services.
Rebecca Lewis was once among those Kansans. In 2011, the McPherson woman found herself working three part-time jobs and trying to complete a college degree. As a single mom with three young boys — then ages 8, 5 and 2 — it was hard to make ends meet.
“My earned income was under $10,000,” she says. “I was experiencing extreme survival mode. Every single day is a fight. So, plugging in everywhere I knew how and running my tail off every day. And it was always about the rent, and the lights, and transportation.”
Although her sons had health coverage through the Kansas Medicaid program, she found it challenging to find a doctor who would accept them as patients. She could have taken them to community health centers in Hutchinson or Salina, but those were 30 miles away. So Lewis did what a lot of people in her situation do.
“There were times that I would wait until later in the evening and take them to the emergency room when I knew that they needed antibiotics, because it was a better short-term choice for me and my children if I didn’t have to miss work or miss school and go out of town,” Lewis says.
Relying on the emergency room for health care is expensive and meant that her boys only saw a doctor when it was absolutely necessary. They missed a lot of the routine preventive care kids are supposed to get.
Lewis and others who couldn’t afford health care wondered why McPherson didn’t have its own clinic to serve uninsured and underinsured patients. Then a local committee studying ways to address poverty came up with a solution: partner with an existing federally funded health center to open a satellite clinic in McPherson.
Wichita-based GraceMed has agreed to do just that. As soon as a location in McPherson can be finalized, the committee plans to conduct a fund drive to raise the money to pay for the building and equipment.
“We will take over, in terms of providing the medical provider and the support staff to deliver that care,” says David Sanford, chief executive officer of GraceMed, a ministry of the United Methodist Church that operates 10 clinics serving 35,000 patients in the Wichita area.
“It’s just a great opportunity to bring clinical services to a community without repeating all of the administrative costs that would go into establishing an independent entity,” he says.
Sanford expects the clinic in McPherson to be sustainable for the long haul. That’s based on the assumption that 60 percent of the patients there will have some form of insurance, whether it’s private coverage, Medicare or Medicaid. Sanford says that target would be easier to meet if Kansas would expand Medicaid eligibility.
“Without Medicaid expansion, the state is making it even more difficult for people to access quality care,” he says. “They’re basically forcing them to get into the bad habit of going to the ER for non-emergency care. They’re forcing people to wait too long to come and be seen by a physician just because they don’t have the resource to do so.”
And people literally are dying because of it, according to Krista Postai, who runs the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. The Pittsburg-based organization operates 10 health centers that serve 40,000 patients in four counties in southeast Kansas — an area with some of the state’s least-healthy residents https://www.khi.org/news/article/southeast-kansas-counties-still-rank-low-for-health .
“Down in southeast Kansas, depending on what county you live in, you’re likely to die five or 10 years earlier than other Kansans,” Postai says. “The No. 1 reason for that is access to care, and that’s why every night when I go to bed I pray that Medicaid will expand someday.”
The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas is among six Kansas health centers that will receive $4 million in federal funding to open new facilities https://bphc.hrsa.gov/programopportunities/fundingopportunities/NAP/0815awards/ks.html . Postai’s organization will use $475,000 to open a new health center in Parsons, replacing an all-volunteer clinic that had been open one afternoon a week.
The health centers are able to provide basic care for uninsured patients, Postai says. However, if uninsured patients need specialty care — like cancer treatment or a heart bypass — they may be out of luck.
“If they had Medicaid, I could refer them in to specialists,” Postai says. “But right now we are finding it almost impossible to find providers who will take patients who have no coverage.”
Currently, 45 percent of the patients at Postai’s clinics have no insurance. She estimates that figure would drop to 10 percent if Kansas expanded Medicaid.
There’s no end in sight to the demand, she says, as patient volume at the clinics has been growing around 18 percent each year.
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
State officials plan a series of “listening sessions” to gather public comment on how best to promote mental health and prevent substance abuse, suicide and problem gaming throughout the state.
The 90-minute sessions are planned:
Aug. 31 — 1:30 p.m., City Limits Convention Center, 2225 S. Range, Colby.
Sept. 1 — 9 a.m., Clarion Inn, 1911 E. Kansas, Garden City.
Sept. 2 — 8:30 a.m., Wichita State University Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th, Wichita.
Sept. 2 — 2:30 p.m., Courtyard Marriott, 3020 Riffel Drive, Salina.
Sept. 3 — 1:30 p.m., Holiday Inn Express, 3411 Iowa, Lawrence.
Sept. 4 — 9 a.m., Memorial Building, Alliance Room, 101 S. Lincoln, Chanute.
Each session will include an introductory presentation on the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services plan to overhaul the state’s approach to promoting behavioral health.
“We have consolidated all of our behavioral health prevention efforts and we want to give Kansans information about how the new approach will work,” KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett said in a prepared statement.
The new approach is being coordinated by the Center for Community Support and Research at Wichita State, which in June was awarded a $684,997 contract by KDADS.
KDADS officials have said the new approach will be more holistic, data-driven and result-oriented than previous efforts. Development of the new approach is expected to take about a year, KDADS officials have said.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Five months after a new law for funding public schools took effect in Kansas, legislators and education officials are talking about drafting another one next year.
The interest comes from critics of this year’s changes in how the state distributes more than $4 billion in aid to 286 school districts — but also from Republican lawmakers who supported the new law.
The new law took effect in early April. It jettisoned the state’s old, per-student formula for distributing aid to the districts, replacing it with grants based on what each district received during the previous school year.
The law set aside money for school funding through June 2017.
The new law’s authors said from the beginning it was a short-term fix for the problems they saw in school funding.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Mike Moustakas had three hits and three RBIs, Kendrys Morales kept up his torrid two-out hitting and the AL Central-leading Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 on Saturday night.
Morales had an RBI single and Moustakas a run-scoring double off Jake Odorizzi (6-7) as the Royals grabbed a 4-3 lead in the fifth. Morales leads the majors with 47 RBIs with two outs this season, breaking the team record of 46 set by Joe Randa in 2000.
Lorenzo Cain had a run-scoring single in the sixth, and Moustakas added an RBI single in the ninth.
Kris Medlen (3-0) allowed three runs and four hits over 5 1/3 innings in his second start and ninth appearance since returning from elbow ligament replacemet surgery. Wade Davis got the last three outs for his 13th save.
Kevin Kiermaier homered for the Rays, who have lost 10 of 15.
Fredrick is located on Kansas 4 east of Bushton- click to expand- google map
FREDERICK, Kan. (AP) — The future of a tiny central Kansas town is uncertain after no one ran in an election to pick its leaders or apparently even voted.
The Hutchinson News reports that with no mayor or city council, the town of Frederick was unable to submit a budget that was due Tuesday to Rice County officials.
County Clerk Alicia Showalter says no one in the town of about 10 residents has made an attempt to meet about the situation.
More than a dozen states have passive dissolution laws that would take effect when a town fails to elect or appoint officers or levy and collect taxes. Kansas isn’t one of them.
Showalter says it could take legislative action to dissolve the town.
On Wednesday, August 26, Fort Hays State University’s Institute for New Media Studies kicked off the year with an open house in its new media lab. The four-hour event saw nearly 400 people visit the Institute.
The event was attended by faculty, staff and students from every FHSU college, most departments and a number of university administrators. Off-campus community members also came to see how the Institute’s resources can serve Hays and the entire Tiger Community.
Attendees participated in several demonstrations of the Institute’s machines led by the Institute’s Director, Dr. Gordon Carlson. The event included a 3D movie screening, hands-on interaction with the Institute’s interactive Smart Table, and an exhibition of its 3D Printer and scanning capabilities. Visitors were able to the experience the Institute’s virtual reality system, Oculus Rift, exploring outer space, the deep sea and an interactive virtual Forsyth Library.
The open house welcomed a number of classes who visited during the day. Students explored many ways to integrate resources from the Institute’s new media lab into their own coursework and research.
Students hailing from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America all visited the Institute. Dr. Scott Robson, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, commented, “Seeing students’ excitement about using new media to communicate was very encouraging.”
The Institute consistently grows with a number of new projects and will continue to serve as a resource for FHSU students, staff, faculty and community members.
WICHITA, KAN. – A Wichita man who was arrested after putting a gun to his girlfriend’s head pleaded guilty this week to a federal firearm charge, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Teagan C. Gulley, 35, Wichita, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction. In his plea, he admitted that Wichita police officers responding to a report of domestic violence saw him pointing a gun at his girlfriend. He was arrested and officers seized a .45 caliber handgun. He was a previously convicted felon at the time and he was prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 9. Both parties have agreed to recommend a sentence of 77 months in federal prison.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a potato genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine and that still damages crops.
Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co. says that the Russet Burbank can also be stored at colder temperatures longer to reduce food waste.
The potato is the second generation of Simplot’s Innate potatoes and also includes the first generation’s reduced bruising and a greater reduction in a chemical produced at high temperatures that some studies have shown can cause cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration in March approved the first generation potato as safe for consumers.
Company officials say about 400 acres of those potatoes were marketed as White Russets last summer and sold out in grocery stores in the Midwest and Southeast.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Guyer and Kevin Kiermaier homered, and the Tampa Bay bullpen held the Kansas City Royals to one hit over five innings Sunday in the Rays’ 3-2 win.
